February 13, 1998

Members of the town’s employee union have turned down a contract offer by the Town of Newtown. During the negotiations, the Town has presented the 32-member union with a 2.5 percent raise, but the union unanimously rejected that offer last week. Members say it is time they saw a more significant increase in pay. “The people in the union are the ones that keep the town moving,” one union member said.

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To be more identifiable, town police are using bold new graphics on their patrol cars. Patrol officers Robert Haas and Christopher Vadas have jointly worked on the redesign project since 1995, submitting their design to the police department at large for an endorsement before the first patrol car received the new design. The new design employs bold italicized yellow lettering on the dark blue cars to attract attention.

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The Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps responded to 1,210 calls in 1997, down 28 calls from its record-breaking year in 1996. Of those calls the corps reports 208 were due to auto accidents, 254 were from non-vehicular trauma, 665 were for medical calls, and the rest were a combination of emotional problems or standby calls. The ambulance corps took in a total of 1,329 patients, 958 of them Newtown residents.

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Bobby Murdy and Troop 70 of the Boy Scouts have given Cullens Memorial a new look. It all started when Bobby was looking for a project to attain his Eagle Scout certification. He noticed that Cullens Memorial was showing signs of wear and tear from all the scouting and other community functions that have been held there over the years. Multiple local businesses donated supplies, and 26 people volunteered their time for a total of 136 hours of work over a five-day period.

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Newtown High School senior Andrew Gellert was going to score the 1,000th point of his varsity basketball career at some point last week. Needing 35 points going into last week’s games, he would have done it sometime around halftime of Tuesday night’s game against New Fairfield had he remained true to his 23 points per game average. Instead, hundreds of screaming fans were packed in the NHS gymnasium on Friday night, February 6, when Notre Dame of Fairfield came to the ‘Hawks Nest. He hit that goal during the second half of the game, becoming just the third boys’ team player in school history to do so, adding his name to the list that already includes Randy Gunther (‘81) and Steve Kordish (‘79).

February 9, 1973

The rains last Friday swelled the brook through the Town Park to the point of overflow, leaving ditches, gaps in the road, and undermining of the pavilion blacktop surface. The water swept with it many pieces of debris, including telephone poles, and left the pipes under the road to the ball field exposed, A considerable amount of gravel will be needed to correct the situation and plans are now being made for the work. In other areas of town, some road washout was reported and fire companies were busy on pumping details.

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Newtown’s Grand List as of October 1, 1972 shows an increase of 46,814,172 from the 1971 total according to figures filed with the Town Clerk’s office by Assessor Robert Ryan. Net taxable total for 1972 is $154,307,233, compared to $147,493,061 for 1971. Increases were recorded in all three categories: real estate, motor vehicles, and personal property. A great part of the 4.6 percent increase was due to the addition of 125 houses.

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State Rep Sarah Frances Curtis met with members of the League of Women Voters at last Saturday’s constituency session in the Edmond Town Hall. Rep Curtis offered her views on two of the League’s areas of study: human resources and election laws. On the issue of human resources, Mrs Curtis discussed a human service bill that would combine all services under one director. There will be several regional hearings on this bill before it reaches a vote.

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VNA’s current annual fund drive is now $3090, nearer its goal due to the generosity of Mrs Anne Donahue who conducted an Antique Flea Market to benefit the work of the VNA on January 27 and 28 at St Rose Hall on Church Hill Road. The market attracted several hundred interested visitors, and all admission fees were turned over to VNA. The gift of $300 with other funds contributed by interested friends will be used entirely for the benefit of Newtown people throughout the coming year.

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Lydia Dixon and Phyllis Ann Wrinn of Newtown have graduated from the practical nurse education program at Henry Abbott Regional Vocational-Technical School.

February 6, 1948

Residents of Cedarhurst road, Zoar district, will not soon forget the present winter. Nearly all rural roads in Newtown were blocked by a series of storms and some required the services of a steam shovel to clear before being opened to traffic.

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Mrs Joseph L. Bennitt of Sandy Hook won the Wishing Well Contest sponsored by radio station WLAD for the March of Dimes, in Danbury. Mr Bennitt works with the State Highway Department as construction engineer. They are the parents of three small daughters. Mrs Bennitt received more than $1,000 worth of gifts donated by local merchants to the cause of the March of Dimes. Needless to say, she feels very happy over her good fortune.

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Friends will be pleased to know that Mrs Orville T. Giddins, who is a patient at the Danbury Hospital, continues to show improvement.

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In spite of the storm the benefit games between the Newtown High school, the St Rose Newtowners and the Social Athletic Club turned in over seventy-six dollars to the March of Dimes. Virginia Laborde was on hand to toss out the ball to Paul Cavanaugh at the beginning of each game. The thriller of the evening was the St Rose win over the High School in the last minute of play by a 48-46 score.

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Peter Knaur, the son of Mr and Mrs Carl Knaur, spent the past week-end at his home on South Main street, Newtown, following completion of mid-term exams at Swarthmore where he is a sophomore.

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Dr and Mrs Benton Egee returned to Newtown Sunday night after a week’s stay in Bermuda where they visited Mr and Mrs Harrie Wood and family who are spending the winter there.

February 2, 1923

On Thursday of last week Gov Templeton sent into the State Senate, the nominations of Henry H. Lyman, Middlefield, and Philo T. Platt, Newtown, and William Spaulding, Norfolk, as members of the State Board of Agriculture. All are reappointments. Senator Platt is at present chairman of the State Board of Agriculture and we are pleased to note that Gov Templeton has named the Newtown senator for another term.

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Title to a small farm in Newtown will be determined by the Superior court, an order having been issued on Friday, by Judge John W. Banks permitting the Town of Newtown and its tax collector Patrick H. McCarthy to sue J. Moss Ives, receiver of the Danbury Bethel Street Railway Co. Mr Ives has been collecting rent from the property, but has never paid taxes. The title is in the name of the Aetna Construction Co, a defunct organization that several years ago took a contract to lay tracks for the trolley company and did not get beyond the purchase of the farm.

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Sandy Hook has now the champion pie eater in the state, in the person of Bob Chase, a wood chopper. The other night at the Golden Peach as an appetizer for supper he ate two entire pies at one sitting.

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Paul Leavy resigned on January 27 as janitor of the Hawley School building and Adolph Carlson immediately took up the work. The grates of one of the furnaces at the Hawley school has burned out. But new grates have been ordered and will probably be ready to be installed by Monday.

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E.L. Saxton, the County YMCA secretary, paid a visit on Thursday night to the Sandy Hook group.

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William D. Ferris and Francis Fenn of Thomaston were guests over Saturday until Monday night of Mr Ferris’ parents, Mr and Mrs Charles Ferris, of Sugar street.

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Mrs E. L. Kingman had the misfortune, last Saturday, while feeding the birds out the back window, to slip and land in a mound of snow outside. Luckily there were no injuries sustained other than seriously frightening her pets.

February 11, 1898

Owing to the bad condition of the roads, there was not a full attendance at the meeting of the Newtown Fair directors on last Thursday night, but much enthusiasm was shown by those present. Judging by the interest taken the fair of 1898 is bound to eclipse any previous effort. It was voted to hold the fair three days, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, September 27, 28 and 29. It was also decided to hold two or more boat races, the first of which will take place on Decoration Day.

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James Lee has finished the task of filling his ice houses at Hawleyville, Falls Village, South Kent, and Roxbury Station.

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Died, January 22, 1898, Barzilla Browne, aged 77. He was married February 5, 1870, to Mrs Emily B. Lyon by the late Rev H.B. Smith, then pastor of the Congregational church in Newtown. Mr Browne’s second wife, aged 77, survives him. He was a Bible student. He loved God and kept His commands. He sleeps in Jesus. Mr Browne left five children, by his first wife, who also mourn their loss, the eldest living in Los Angeles, Cal.

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A letter addressed to Mrs S.O. Curtis remains at the Newtown post office.

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Ira Wildman purchased three horses at Waldron’s sale in Danbury, Friday. Burt also bought one.

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A week ago Saturday, Gus Dahlstrom, employed by A.G. Baker, drove to Washington to bring down a load of hay. The storm came on, Monday, and he was snowbound for several days. He finally drove through to Hawleyville, Wednesday, breaking a path a part of the way.

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W.H. Glover is one of our regular advertisers, and has recently sold a tread mill plower to A.C. Innis of Stratford, and sold the windmill to Nichols Brothers of Trumbull, for which they would not trade the farm if they could not get another. He has sold over 20 plowers the past year, as well as saws, harrows, and other farming utensils.

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A party of Newtown people enjoyed an excursion to Woodbury on Monday afternoon, stopping at the Curtiss hotel. A fine dinner was served by Landlord Curtiss. The party included Rev and Mrs George T. Linsley, Mr and Mrs Edgar F. Hawley, Mr and Mrs C.F. Beardsley, W.A. Leonard, Mr and Mrs Daniel G. Beers, Charles G. Peck, Miss Julia Dikeman, Mr and Mrs R.H. Beers, Mr and Mrs Hobart Curtis, and Mr and Mrs Henry G. Curtis.

Do you have photographs of people or places in town from a bygone era? The Way We Were is the perfect landing spot so that your photographs can be enjoyed by Newtown Bee readers. Images can be e-mailed as attachments to shannon@thebee.com, subject line: Way We Were photo. When submitting photographs, please identify as many people as possible, the location, and the approximate date. If you live locally and would like to loan a photo/photos, please give us a call (203-426-3141) to let us know when you will be visiting.